Profile
FIRST NAME:EvaNATIONALITY: Frenchçaise
RACE NAME : MEng Mechanical Engineering
UNIVERSITY NAME : University of Bath
TYPE OF BACCALAUREATE AND RESULT OBTAINED :French Scientific Baccalaureate with honors (15.3 grade point average, with 15 in math, 18 in physics and 18 in English)
NAME OF YOUR SCHOOL:Assomption Sainte Clotilde in Bordeaux
I applied to do Mechanical Engineering at 5 universities in England: the University of Bath, Bristol, Leeds, Queens Mary and Imperial. I had an interview at Imperial, after which I was not admitted, but was accepted to the other 4 schools. I’m interested in engineering because I like to understand how things work and the phenomena that surround us. My favorite subjects are maths and physics, so engineering made perfect sense to me.
I also applied to several engineering schools in France, including INSA, EPF and Estaca. My first choice was always the University of Bath, but I needed very good Bac grades, which I wasn’t sure I’d get. My second choice, to be on the safe side, was Estaca.
The application to UCAS was not a simple one. Writing my personal statement a was quite long and helped me improve my English a lot, as I was looking for adjectives and synonyms every day to make it more enjoyable to read. I sent several versions to my English teacher who corrected them and gave me advice on how to improve it. I’d recommend mentioning in a personal statementbien books or articles on engineering or science in general that have made an impression on you, but also anything to do with sport, team spirit, travel and openness to different cultures.
I didn’t have an interview at Bath University, but I did have an interview at Imperial which was quite stressful. I had prepared myself by thinking about basic questions like “why study engineering” and “why in England”, but I couldn’t answer a physics problem that was put to me.
When I chose Bath University, I was probably influenced by the league tables. I wanted the best I could get for my grades. I think the league tables are a pretty important source of help when it comes to choosing your future university. The content of the curriculum had no influence on my choice, because I was sure, in any case, that I wanted to study mechanical engineering. U
Why did you choose this particular university?
The University of Bath campus is huge and very pleasant. The city is beautiful and very student-oriented, and there’s a great atmosphere all round.
The three things I like most are the courses, the events (“socials”) organized by various associations (“societies”) that allow you to meet people, and the independence.
The three things I like least are being in a student residence where meals are included (“Catered”), which means paying every month to eat in campus restaurants that aren’t always very healthy or of good quality. The second thing would be my room, which I find very small.
There are a lot of international students and a lot of French. I have French friends but also English and other nationalities. I think that having English friends is a good thing to be able to speak the language and improve yourself, but also to discover another way of thinking. However, it’s also great to have French friends with whom you share the same values and upbringing.
It’s quite easy to make friends, but not always to make good friends. I find that English students often put up a barrier and it often takes a long time to become very close to an English person. The French, on the other hand, seem more open to making better friends quickly. nivernais
What’s your student residence like?
Do you live on campus?
I’m staying at Brendon Court which is “Catered” which means that every week we are forced to put £50 on a card to be used to eat at the campus restaurants. The restaurants are often bad tasting, very expensive and not very varied and the food is not very healthy. The cleanliness of Brendon, my residence, was quite good despite the fact that showers and toilets are shared but the rooms very small.
I’d recommend the Norwood residence which, as well as being the cheapest, has much larger rooms and a kitchen for 7 students to share. As Brendon was “Catered”, we weren’t expected to cook, so we shared the kitchen with 39 students.
However, Norwood is located above the Student Union, which means noise in the evenings, but only on Wednesday and Saturday nights until 2 or 3am. Having visited 5 residences in all, this is definitely the one I’d recommend!
In other residences, it’s easier to have groceries delivered and to cook. The nice thing about living on campus is that you’re within walking distance of the courses. 2nd and 3rd year students live in the city and must therefore take the U1 bus every day (you need to budget for £300 of transport per year).
The process of obtaining a residence was fairly straightforward and guided, but I didn’t have a lot of information about which one to choose.
Could you describe your experience at your university?
I have 10h of lectures a week and 7h of tutorials, study hours with teachers or 4th year students to help us and do exercises. We also have around 2 hours of lab every two weeks and lab reports due 2 weeks after certain labs.
The amount of work in my first year is quite manageable. I’d say I work less than I did in my final year, except at exam time, when I have to do a lot of work a few weeks before!
We have 2 exam periods a year, one in January and one in May. I’m not very involved in club life, but I’d definitely advise doing it, and I’ve actually planned to do more next year!
If I had to improve one thing about the English university system, it would be to have more hours of lessons and fewer exercises to do on my own.
Do you have any other comments or advice for students interested in applying to your university or other foreign universities?
Finally, my basic advice to French students wanting to study in England is to try to have at least two groups of friends: a group of English and international friends with whom they can share different experiences and ways of thinking, and a group of French friends with whom they can feel more at ease and “at home”. In my opinion, this makes for the best possible experience!
